On Bill Bennett’s Morning in America radio show last week Ryan invited Capehart’s ire by saying:

You know your buddy Charles Murray or Bob Putnam over at Harvard – those guys have written books on this. Which is, we have got this tailspin of culture in our inner cities in particular of men not working. And just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work and so there’s a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with.

Convinced that Rep. Ryan has “much to learn,” Capehart presumes to instruct him. The condition of the inner cities, according to Professor Capehart, has nothing to do with culture. “Rather, it was the end result of discriminatory housing policies enacted decades ago by federal, state and local governments that created a cycle of residential segregation for black people that persists to this day.” Among those policies Capehart blamed:

• red-lining and restrictive covenants

• the departure of manufacturing and commerce

• under-funded schools

• racial profiling

• discriminatory drug enforcement laws

• debilitating effects of a “cycle of incarceration”

“So, no,” Professor Capehart concludes, “the problems plaguing the inner city aren’t created by culture. They are the indirect result of government policies. And it’s going to take progressive government policies to solve them.”

Let us assume that this typical liberal list of discriminatory government policies (even though it sneaks in “the departure of manufacturing and commerce”) is valid. Still, it’s odd that “culture” in any manifestation is totally absent, especially since in other contexts the vibrant “difference” of black culture is at the very core of the justification for engineering increased “diversity” in all areas of American life (perhaps even playing a role in Professor Capehart’s own meteoric rise).